Vietnam’s export turnover of aquatic products was estimated at 653 million USD in June, raising the total figure in the first half of this year to 3.5 billion USD, up 14.1 percent year-on-year, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The increase was attributed to the growth in exports of seafood, especially tuna.

Vietnam’s tuna export earnings gained a year-on-year increase of 20 percent to 216 million USD in the first five months. The country also earned 199 million USD from shipping squids and octopus abroad, up 39 percent against the same period last year.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP)’s statistics showed that the US, the European Union, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (RoK) remained Vietnam’s largest importers of aquatic products, accounting for 54.6 percent of the total export turnover.

However, decreases were seen in the US and EU markets, down 12.7 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. Meanwhile, the Japanese, Chinese and RoK markets reported impressive growth, up 29.3 percent, 20.1 percent, and 26.1 percent, respectively.